Chapter 5:(1889 words)

It was later on in the day which she made up with Daring Charming, around one in the afternoon. Students were just getting out of classes to eat.

She herself was starving, she ate barely anything for breakfast since she was too busy thinking about the events earlier in the day, how UnCharming looked at her then, when she looked so happy, and especially how she felt really strange in her stomach. She just assumed that it would go away, so she ignored it.

Since she was a half-werewolf, she had a massive appetite, and so she ate three burgers until she was full.

Raven looked at her unusually until she remembered her friend's heritage and thankfully didn't comment on it. It's hard to explain why she can eat so much in so little time.

She stood up, putting away the plate, but not before saying goodbye to Raven and Cedar, who she was sitting with.

Cerise left the cafeteria and while she was walking down a hall, she heard someone behind her, the wolf ears on the side of her head easily detecting the sound.

She turned to see Apple White and her… entourage. It consisted of the O'Hair twins, Briar Beauty, Ashlynn Ella and Blondie Locks, daughter of Goldilocks, was joining them today.

Apple was in the centre of the line-up of princesses (plus Blondie), and gave Cerise a sweet smile before it turned into a malicious smirk.

"My, oh, my." She began speaking, her voice oozing like honey, sickly and much too sweet, "Look what we have here… a rebel."

The five other girls gasped silently with questioning looks until Briar asked, "What do you mean, Apple? She's the hero of her story, and following her destiny."

The others nodded at her statement and waited for Apple to respond.

"She joined the bookball team, she broke tradition. That counts as a rebel in my books," she made a disgusted face at being in near proximity of a rebel, which is quite ironic since her roommate is Raven Queen.

Briar went to respond but Ashlynn beat her to it, "Yes, she broke tradition, but that is not the definition of a rebel."

Apple's eyes sharpened as she looked at Cerise, though the hooded girl didn't back down, she had seen many of those in her life time, since most werewolves, the ones she's not related to, believe her to be a human, and they relish in scaring a human, so she has learnt from experience to not back down.

Apple gave her a frown, and snipped, "They're just as bad as one, though."

All of the other girls looked at her. Cerise looked at her warily while the other girls looked shocked at Apple's vicious tone. The usually chirpy and kind princess had never acted like this before and it worried her friends.

"You know, my Daring is very smart. You should know, he never plays you in the team's practices."

She smirks when Cerise's eyes widen and one of them twitch. 'How could she? Daring said that he would let me play, and he is most certainly not hers!' She didn't know why she cared so much at Apple's comment of Daring belonging her to her. Probably because Daring didn't really seem like he wanted that, and she was never one for forcing others to do anything.

She felt her eyes growing wet, 'No! I won't let her get to me! I won't let her see me cry!' Her attempt at stopping the tears were useless, but she still wasn't going to let the pretty princesses see her cry.

She ran.

She ran and ran and ran until she was in her favourite clearing in the dangerous forest near the school. She didn't know what to do. It's been years since she'd let someone get to her like that, and it just had to involve Daring, didn't it?

She sighed as the tears didn't stop. 'Did he change his mind? Won't he play me? Was he just faking the friendship we had earlier?' She didn't know.

What she did know was that there was someone, something nearby. She could hear it with her wolf ears, twigs snapping as the thing approached her. She turned her head to the direction of the school and the sound.

'It must be a student from Ever After. Oh, I hope it's not Apple.' She shivered at the thought of being humiliated like that in public.

When a gap between two trees was suddenly filled with the student who made the noise, she sighed in relief at seeing that it wasn't Apple… but who was it? She had never seen this girl at school.

The girl saw Cerise on the floor leaning against a tree, hardly any sunlight was getting through the thick canopy, making it very difficult to see, though Cerise had improved vision for being a half-werewolf.

She sniffed a bit as the tears slowed down slightly at the stop of negative thoughts and asked, "Who are you?"

"Oh, silly me!" she playfully began, "I'm Darling Charming."

Her eyes widened at the discovery of the identity of the student with her at the moment. She didn't want to hear anything about Daring at this moment and she scrunched up even further to make a smaller ball.

Darling must have noticed because she quickly asked, "What happened?" She huffed, annoyed, "Did my brother do something to upset you?"

"Um, no… I don't think so. It was Apple. Apple White? You probably know her." she whispered shyly.

Darling's eyes widened and her jaw dropped until she realised what had just left the hooded girls lips and she answered, "I do… why would Apple do that?"

Cerise was surprised. The girl, a princess, believed her over Apple White? The future ruler of Ever After, that Apple White?

She voiced her suspicions and Darling just laughed fondly in return, her usually bright, vibrant white hair a dull, grey in the gloom of the forest, but she still worked it. 'Now that's what a Charming should be like, not how Daring UnCharming has been acting.' She shook her head at her silly thoughts.

"Now, what happened?" Darling asked warily, not wanting to push her away further.

Cerise huffed, "Your brother hasn't been playing me in the bookball practices and Apple said that he was smart for doing so. It was really weird. I've only been here for two weeks but even I know that she's always really sweet and kind."

Darling shook her head. "Princesses," Cerise heard her mutter, her ears picking up the sound.

"Darling, you're a princess," she replied, laughing slightly. She was already feeling a lot better.

"I know, I know, but I don't want to be, and some others are the same, like Briar, or Ashlynn."

"Really?" Cerise questioned curiously.

"Yeah, Ashlynn doesn't want to be a princess so she can be with Hunter forever, and Briar didn't want to sign the storybook of legends, since that would mean being asleep for one hundred years and then she's woken up by some dude one hundred years younger than her kissing her on the lips and finding out that all of her friends are dead."

"Wow, that's hard."

"Yeah."

"I'm Cerise Hood, by the way, daughter of Little Red Riding Hood," she informed, sticking her hand out.

Darling smiled kindly and nodded shaking her hand back, and when their hands retreated, her expression turned angry, "Has Daring really not been playing you? Oh, and well done on getting in the bookball team, by the way!"

Cerise laughed at her mood swings, they were almost as bad as her own. She then huffed at the actions of Daring UnCharming. "Yeah, though I talked to him this morning and he said that he would, so maybe he hasn't told Apple? And good job with getting in the fencing team, great inspiration."

"Hmm, thanks! And that's true, he probably doesn't want to anger Apple. She's even more obsessed with destinies and traditions than he is!"

Cerise fake-gasped, "How is that even possible?"

Darling definitely laughed at the dry humour of the girl in front of her and stated, "I think that we'll be great friends, don't you think?"

She smiled at the rebel princess, giving her the thumbs up before standing up and walking back to the castle together.

(-Line break!-)

They talked about anything and everything, both girls noticing the light increasing as the canopy of leaves thinned in width, until they reached the entrance of the school building.

Darling frowned, "I have to go see my brother about this, just to make sure."

Cerise smiled at her, happy that the girl cared that much about her problems, and quoted her from earlier, "I think that we'll be great friends, don't you think?"

Darling smirked at her before giving her a hug. Cerise stiffened for a second, unused to human contact, before hugging back, strongly. She made a new friend!

She was delighted at this, and waved goodbye to Darling before going back to her dorm room, resting earlier than usual to get up and run before practice. Hey, maybe she'd even bump into Prince UnCharming as well.

She loved that nickname, almost as much as she loved messing with people, which is exactly what that name did, though it was purposefully tailored to suit Daring. It was unique, and annoyed him a lot, so she was sure to use it tomorrow, whether he played her or not.

(-Line break!-)

On the other side of the castle Darling made her way to her brother's room, but not before bumping into Blondie Locks.

"Oh, sorry Blondie, I wasn't looking where I was going."

"It's okay, don't worry about it. Hey, do you know where Cerise Hood is?"

Daring had an expression of shock on her face, "Yeah, why?"

Blondie looked relieved, "Apple was acting unusually vicious towards her earlier, and me, Briar and Ashlynn were looking for her to make sure that she was alright."

Darling nodded, thankful that she was not lied to, though she didn't doubt her new friend, not even for a second. "That makes sense, she told me the same thing. She's fine now, don't worry. Just try to make sure that Apple doesn't be mean to her please. Do you know why she was acting this way?"

Blondie shock her head, "No, sorry. It was really weird. And thank you for looking out for her: when I say that Apple was vicious, I mean it."

Darling nodded once more and repeated the end of Blondie's words, "Thank you for looking after her too, good night, I'm going to go and see my brother.

Blondie nodded and scurried away to find the other two princesses that were looking out for the hooded girl.

Darling reached her brother's door and knocked twice quickly and once after a second or two. It was the secret hand shake of the Charming siblings. Dexter invented it, so that they would know when it would be one of their siblings at the door or just some random fan. They always checked anyway, but if they didn't want to be disturbed, they would only open the door to a Charming.

She waited for it to open, thinking of what to say, and how her eldest brother would react…

A/N: So… I'm sorry I haven't updated this in who knows how long.

I guess I just got pretty strong writer's block and then I just gave up trying to write anything for a bit. But it's a bit better now. I'll be able to churn out another chapter. Two if I'm lucky, but for now, just enjoy this one. :)

Enjoy!